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Cowboy Fire, May 2016 Coconino

Out · last measured on 17 May 2016

The fire started on 17 May 2016 in Coconino, United States, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 861 hectares, spread across a single county.

It is the 242th largest in Arizona since 2016 (of 380 with a page). Number 296 in United States in 2016, of 475.

Burnt area
861ha
official perimeter (MTBS / NIFC)
Duration
1day
17 May 2016 – 17 May 2016
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
17 May
2016
Heat detections
60
in a single hotspot: 66 MW
Danger at start
3
Very low · FWI index

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 May17 May

The weather it burned in

20°high
80km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Coconino where it started
    854 ha reached on 23 May
    0.0 %

Burnt area inside each county, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
17 May 15.6 °C 30 % 37 km/h 2.6 mm Very low 3
18 May after 14.0 °C 45 % 30 km/h 5.1 mm Very low 0
19 May after 19.9 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.6 mm Very low 4
20 May after 18.8 °C 23 % 80 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
21 May after 16.7 °C 24 % 78 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
22 May after 17.3 °C 20 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
23 May after 18.1 °C 13 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
24 May after 16.2 °C 19 % 71 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
25 May after 17.4 °C 14 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
26 May after 15.8 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 21
27 May after 18.8 °C 18 % 43 km/h 0.1 mm High 22
28 May after 21.4 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
29 May after 22.2 °C 11 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
30 May after 20.9 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
31 May after 24.2 °C 10 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
1 Jun after 27.2 °C 9 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Jun after 29.4 °C 7 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
3 Jun after 31.3 °C 7 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
4 Jun after 31.4 °C 9 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
5 Jun after 30.8 °C 8 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 10 May 2016
After · 24 May 2016

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 60Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in United States ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Cowboy fire last?
It burned between 17 May 2016 and 17 May 2016: 1 day, according to the start date recorded by United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) and the heat detections seen by satellite.
How much area did it burn?
The official perimeter published by United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC) is 861 hectares (8.6 km²). Other tallies, such as daily incident reports, may give slightly different figures.
Which counties burned?
The fire only entered Coconino (854 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 19.9 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 80 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the official burnt perimeter of United States agencies (MTBS / NIFC, public domain), NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of United States. It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Emergency number: 911

Satellite cross-check

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

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We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 911.

Where this data comes from

The perimeter is official and in the public domain. For past years it comes from MTBS (Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity), run by the U.S. Geological Survey and the USDA Forest Service, which map it on Landsat and Sentinel-2 imagery. For the current and last year it comes from WFIGS at the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC): incident perimeters mapped by fire crews, aircraft and imagery. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. County boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Public Domain). The area per county is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from official figures.